NAME

       Inventor - a toolkit for writing 3D programs

DESCRIPTION

       The  Open  Inventor 3D Toolkit is an object-oriented toolkit that simplifies and abstracts
       the task of writing graphics programming into a set of easy to use objects.  These objects
       range  from  low-level  data-centered objects such as Sphere, Camera, Material, Light, and
       Group, to high-level application-level objects such as Walk Viewer  and  Material  Editor.
       The foundation concept in Inventor is the "scene database" which defines the objects to be
       used in an application.  When using Inventor, a programmer creates,  edits,  and  composes
       these objects into hierarchical 3D scene graphs (i.e. database).  A variety of fundamental
       application tasks such as rendering, picking, event handling, and file reading/writing are
       built-in operations of all objects in the database and thus are simple to invoke.

       Since  Inventor  is  object-oriented (written in C++), it encourages programmers to extend
       the system by writing new objects.  Inventor users have created a variety of  new  objects
       that  are  not  included  in the product, such as: Bezier surfaces, CSG objects, animation
       objects, special viewers, and many more.

       Note that the rendering mechanism inside Inventor objects employs  OpenGL.   Thus,  during
       rendering  each  object  automatically  makes  the  proper,  efficient  calls  to  OpenGL.
       Furthermore, Inventor rendering supports a caching scheme  which  automatically  generates
       very fast renderings of the database without traversal overheads.

       Inventor  picking  is  extremely  efficient  and does not utilize rendering.  Furthermore,
       picking returns a variety of 3D information and detail about what objects were picked.   A
       sorted list of picked objects and corresponding information is returned to the programmer.
       Picking is so fast that programs can perform 3D locate highlighting  as  the  mouse  moves
       across a 3D window.

INTERACTION, EVENTS, AND DEVICES

       Inventor  defines  a  event model for writing 3D interaction.  This model is window system
       independent.  It is quite easy  to  use  and  makes  3D  direct  manipulation  programming
       possible.   Inventor  includes  a  variety of interactive 3D objects and tools for writing
       interactive objects, such as: Manipulators, Draggers, and Projectors.  The flexible  event
       model encourages programmers to extend the system to support new devices and event types.

FILE FORMAT

       The  Inventor  3D  File Format is SGI's standard for 3D data.  The format supports both an
       ASCII and private binary format.  The binary format is network-neutral  and  thus  can  be
       exported across machine boundaries.

BENEFITS

       Programming  3D  graphics  applications  with Inventor results in large-scale productivity
       increases.  This also increases with time as more tools  utilize  the  Inventor  paradigm,
       user interfaces, and standard file format.

DOCUMENTATION

       A  list  of  online  documentation is available in the General FAQ section of the web site
       provided at the end of this man page.

SOURCE CODE

       The Inventor Toolkit includes source code to NUMEROUS programs and examples.

SEE ALSO

       drop, gview, SceneViewer, ivcat, ivview, maze, noodle, qmorf, revo, showcase, textomatic

       http://oss.sgi.com/projects/inventor/

                                                                                      Inventor(1)